It’s kind of ironic running a blogging tips linky when you’ve lost your blogging mojo.
It’s not that I haven’t anything to write about, I have lots of ideas sparked from wine soaked conversations with other mum friends, to random chat with the husband, to trips out. I have wonderful days out ready to share, new products aplenty, thousands of photographs and I may even be dabbling in a bit of YouTube. I have the ideas, just not the impetus.
And to be quite frank, I don’t have the words.
Words that are the cornerstone of the blogging world, eloquent sentences that are a joy to read, that trip off the tongue, that spill from my head. Words that just aren’t there, that are forced out, written and deleted, written again, deleted again.
I think the events of the past few months are catching up with us all and it’s manifesting in more ways than one. Crabby, cranky children craving routine. Stressed out Mummy and Daddy longing to give the routine, to settle, to get back into a groove. Theoretically homeless with all our worldly possessions sat in storage at Southampton docks. Theoretically unemployed waiting for documents to be stamped, to be green lighted.
All up in the air.
Discombobulated.
It’s strange being a grown up back in my childhood bedroom, complete with husband and two children. With all the paraphernalia that comes with us all spilling out across the house. It’s cluttered, my mind is cluttered, and the words are gone before I have a chance to grab hold of them and write them down.
Lost in the vacuum of my mind, stored deep in the long term memory vault, you know where Joy and Sadness got lost on Inside Out, pushed away with children tantrums, bedtime battles and silly bickering with the husband.
The words are gone in the grind of daily life and my blogging mojo is lost.
But it won’t be forever and I know it will come back soon, that blogging is an addiction that I won’t break.
I’m trying not to obsessively click on my stats, to compare myself to other bloggers who seem to have no problem writing seventeen eloquent posts a week, to remember when (the BiBs Best Writer winner no less) despaired asking me how I wrote so often.
Which made me think how did I write so often? And more to the point why did I?
I wrote from the heart, I brain dumped, I typed and I hit publish. At times my spelling may have been a bit auto correct-fail and my grammar could do with some work, but I wrote as I spoke; long winded rambling honesty with jokes that make me laugh even if they don’t make others laugh (looking at you there Husband dearest). I wrote because I love it, because I like recording memories down and because, at the end of the day, rambling or not I think I’m fairly good at getting my point across.
I didn’t over think every word as I’m doing now.
I didn’t obsess over SEO ready titles and special key words.
I wrote, I added pretty pictures, I published.
I poured a little bit of me into every single blog post.
So while I may have lost my blogging mojo as we prepare for another monumental life changing event to happen, I class it as a good thing. It’s made me go back to basics, to remember why I blog, who I blog for and to remember that it is all about putting a little piece of me into every post, because without a little piece of me in my posts they’d be just another set of words on the screen. And by reminding myself of this every time I set finger to keyboard I am slowly regaining my mojo…
I’m the same! I think it’s lack of routine because I’ve started a new job. If life doesn’t flow, writing can’t flow either!
Totally get this, for me I completely lost my blogging mojo when I started writing posts that I thought I SHOULD write, rather than the ones I wanted to write. Also, I can’t write at all when I’m stressed and my mind is too full of ore things, I need to relax for the words to flow. I wrote a fairly good post in the bath once, and it wasn’t anything to do with what I thought I was going to write about…
This is it! Writing posts I think I should write, rather than the ones I want to write. This suddenly makes so much sense as to why I’m just not writing anything. Thank you, hopefully this will help me to get back to it.
Reading this, my main thought was to say that you are not alone! I too am back in my childhood bedroom, albeit temporarily, and I think we all lose that mojo from time to time. It will return.
Ah I love this. I don’t know how many posts you write a week; they may not be 17 like those other bloggers or as many as you used to but this is still sounding pretty eloquent to me… Meanwhile, here I am reading other people’s posts because I don’t have any impetus to write my own.
And thanks for the mention, lol…I can’t believe this is the first post of yours I’ve read in a few weeks and I see myself being mentioned; it did make me chuckle. Glad you were finding your blogging mojo by the time the post ended…please excuse me while I go try to relocate mine!!
I re-write and re-write posts numerous times before hitting publish, I drive myself insane and waste so much time.
Its definitely hard work keeping on top of posts but I find when the mind flows, I can’t shut up! Its very hit and miss with me xx
I think we’ve all run into this from time to time. There really are just so many different things to write about. I’ve never had any kind of schedule or anything because I never know when something might happen that will inspire me to pen and paper and never have enough ideas to be very far ahead of the game.
Sounds like you’ve figured some important things out! I am new to all of this and I struggle because I really find it hard to write without a ‘spark’ of inspiration. Once I have one, I’m away…But I find they only happen every few weeks (if that!) and that’s not enough to keep the blog going as I would like!
I also definitely don’t worry about SEO at all and fear I should. The words come out as they have to and often that means the words that should be associated with what I am discussing aren’t even in the whole post, let alone in the title or opening… oh well…
Definitely hold onto that feeling of writing because it feels good… but reading this, it doesn’t seem like you have lost much to me 🙂
Author
Ah thank you Danielle. It definitely feels harder to get the words out in the right order and I’ve started to over analyze whereas once I’d breathe a sigh of relief that it was out of my head and onto the paper.
Great post. I’ve taken a step back from all the stats / SEO etc stuff lately too. It feels good and I feel like I’m writing better stuff. I’m focusing a bit more on photos as well, it’s nice to focus on a different area of blogging rather than just writing. I’m also making use of dead time – I wrote a blog post when we were stuck in traffic on the motorway the other day, I feel better that I’m being productive when there’s nothing else to do. I hope you’re soon back into the swing of things because I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog.
Nat.x
I’ve lost my mojo lately too and I am completely with you, I think it’s because I’ve turned blogging more into a business than an outlet and am just taking it all too seriously.
I need to start saying no more and writing more honest and from the heart posts, the posts that I enjoy writing.
It is so hard not to get caught up in it all though!
#BlogStorm
This is so frustrating when you feel like this, especially when you still have so many ideas. I think you’re doing great even opening the blog with everything you have going on!
Personally, I always find when I start stat chasing, the fun goes out of it, and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here – going back to basics and blogging for the love of it.
Thanks for hosting #blogstorm
Debbie
Author
Ahh thank you Debbie, it’s a bit of stress relief to open the blog and play around. Just not to constantly refresh on all the stats and worry about it all when in the grand scheme of things we have much bigger things on our plates!z
I totally relate to this. And the longer it goes on, the harder it gets. I think when this happens all you can do is step back and wait, and eventually it all comes back again. I find I feel most inspired to write when I CAN’T because I have other things to see to, yet when I sit down with plenty of free time to write….nothing flows! #blogstorm
I definitely lost my mojo a while ago and making the decision to have a bit of a digital detox for a few days really helped. I had been obsessing over my social stats for a while, then the blog got hacked and I had a nasty troll – I needed to take a break away from it . It definitely helped me. Xxx #blogstorm
I completely agree.
I’m pretty new to blogging and I’m still finding my “style”, but when I start down a blogging road that just isn’t working, I get stuck and have to step back and look at the big picture for my blog.
I get where you’re coming from with each post being a part of you as well.
Thanks for the great read.